FARMINGTON, Maine — A Wilton man was sentenced Aug. 31 to serve 18 months of a 13-year sentence and 10 years probation for sexually abusing two girls under the age of 12 in September 2006, according to court documents.
Carl A. Seaward, 82, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of unlawful sexual contact and one misdemeanor count of unlawful sexual touching on Aug. 31 in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta.
Wilton police launched an investigation earlier this year after they received a referral from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Sgt. Richard Billian Jr. arrested Seaward, a retired school guidance counselor and teacher, in May. Seaward retired after more than 15 years as a Jay Elementary School guidance counselor in 2002. The charges are not connected to any of his former students.
According to court documents, he was sentenced to eight years with all but nine months suspended on the first felony charge and six years probation on one count of unlawful sexual contact. The conviction on that charge could have carried up to 30 years in prison.
He was also sentenced to serve nine months consecutive to the first count on the second charge of unlawful sexual contact. The conviction on that charge could have carried up to 10 years in prison.
In addition, Seaward was sentenced to five years all suspended on the third charge of unlawful sexual contact and four years of probation to begin after the six years probation are served on the first count. The conviction on the charge also carried up to 10 years in prison.
He also was sentenced to serve nine months to run concurrent, or together, with the nine months he will serve on count two.
Seaward is also required to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.
He will serve his sentence at a county jail. Conditions of his release include that he have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16 and to have no contact with the victims unless they and their parents consent in writing.
Should have given him the maximum sentence. Chances are he never would have gotten out to do it again.
NO NO not in Maine
Did I miss the memo? What the hell is going with sentencing in Maine? 18 months for physically and mentally abusing two girls for life. They will carry that abuse with them their entire lives and this scum bag only gets 18 months?!
One would hope their parents have tended to suitable therapy for them
They will never be the same no matter how much therapy.
With that mentality, they may never. Hopefully the girls parents have more sense then you do and helped them move on.
So you believe with therary they will ‘get over it’ and ‘move on’? It may help them cope with the abuse but they will be dealing with the effects for the rest of their lives. Hopefully they will learn healthy ways to deal with it.
My point is that you can never fully erase an incident like that from a person’s mind. With therapy they can learn to live with it, but it will always still be there.
In good old Maine
It was a 13-year sentence with a lot of conditions. There is a lot of information that is missing though. While he only has to serve 18 months who knows if he will even make it that entire time. Again, a lot of information is missing.
Commit a crime in Maine & get a slap on the wrist! Maine the way jail shouldn’t be. What a joke!!!!!
Not in Maine
Did we miss it or is there no order to undergo therapy as a component of this sentence? Wouldn’t most reasonable people agree that something somewhere along the line helped develop this aberrant behavior? It is often a victim who becomes a perpetrator. Has the illness been there all along, only to surface at age 76? If something or someone is broken it makes sense to try to fix the problem in addition to the punishment. Locking people away is the easy part and fulfills our need to “get even” in some way, but once done society ought go further. Not to try – even when the subject is in his ninth decade is to claim nothing can be done, which is worse than trying and failing. We should expect that the plaintiffs have also undergone similar work, though that’s nothing a court can decide. One would assume their parents have attended to it, but one never knows.
Pedophiles cannot be rehabilitated.
I remember that in the mid-80’s the head of the Mass. Dept of Mental Health got a lot of flack for saying publicly “There is no effective treatment for pedophilia. Let me repeat that. There is no effective treatment for pedophilia. ” Nothing has changed since then to indicate otherwise.
seems everyday now a new pervert is exposed -sometimes more than 1 ! Getting really bad really truly is.
This is a travesty. 18 months is nothing. I imagine that his victims have to deal with a life sentence due to his predatory actions. And this does not mean that these were the only incidents of him sexually abusing children, just that this time he was caught.
” 18 months of a 13-year sentence”
are you F***ing kidding?
he ruined the lives of 2 young girls, and all he gets is 18 months?
he should be executed.
and the judge should be disbarred and punished for being a soft-hearted fool that inflicts more pain on the victims by not punishing the criminals appropriately
Even worse is that at 82, it’s likely that there are way more than 2 victims whose lives will never be the same again.
Can’t trust anyone!!!!
According to court documents, he was sentenced to eight years with all
but nine months suspended on the first felony charge and six years
probation on one count of unlawful sexual contact. The conviction on
that charge could have carried up to 30 years in prison.
WOW…go maine!
GO MAINE GO MAINE
I can guarantee you this man did not start this behavior so late in life. There is probably a long list of victims that will never completely heal and will live with what was done to them. Great job on the sentencing. Maine rocks.
“have no contact with the victims unless they and their parents consent in writing.”
Wait… what??? Never have I seen this before… And just another minor point, it does not mention how long he has to register as a sex offender… Are we expected to assume this means for the rest of his life or is it like some others convicted, that they must only register for a set number of years???
Can you say plea deal???
What is an 82 year old man doing as a counselor?
The article states he retired in 2002….that’s 10 years ago at the age of 72…. and the article also states these charges have nothing to do with students he worked with….its disgusting either way but damn read the article before you comment.
To bad he did not have some drugs on him he could have gotten a real jail sentence, and forfeited some of his property. SIKO